Hey Chris, a really interesting discussion. I think I’m mostly in agreement so far. 🙂 I especially appreciated your clarification regarding liberal/conservative theology when it comes to the role of women in ministry. It can absolutely be either.

I think my contribution might be a caution to be very careful of how much mainstream media influences one’s views on these things. They are incredibly inaccurate and insanely biased. For example, while I can’t support Trump, a number of the ‘talking points’ about him are actually based on sound-clips taken out of context (even if one believes one can justify the distortion based on other things he’s said/done). Likewise, the media has very much downplayed Hillary’s corruption, lies, and involvement in some of of the biggest problems in the world (Syrian refugees, working to topple 7 M.E. countries, Haiti, Puerto Rico, etc.) (… which, ironically, the progressives are screaming about and so fearful of the Republicans and Trump).

Aside from their pet projects, I don’t see much difference between the parties either (on core things like economics, foreign policy, etc.). One of my former economics profs noted this when I was in seminary… they are pretty much peas in a pod.

A resource I’d highly recommend checking out is a podcast called Congressional Dish. While the host would consider herself a ‘progressive’, she does a great job of keeping us informed on what Congress is up to (where we should be placing more focus). If you can get through a couple of episodes without being outraged, maybe one of the two big parties might work… otherwise, time to look elsewhere.

Or, if you can handle a bit of language/vulgarity and sometimes inappropriate humor (and assess conspiracy theory), an interesting podcast is No Agenda. They do a lot of media deconstruction and analysis… and whether you agree with their take on it, or not, you’ll quickly start to see the lies, coverup, propaganda!, and absolute agenda of the mainstream press.

Couldn’t agree more re: media manipulation and that Hillary’s crimes were massively down-played and the strongest criticism of her is that she’s a ‘liar’. On the other hand Trump is taking a sledgehammer to the establishment, dealing with issues affecting millions of Americans and there’s no credit given to him for that. I don’t really care if someone prefers Clinton over Trump – but the evidence was totally lacking for holding that position which was frustrating.

Kudos to you Chris though – you had some specific points against Trump.

If one was doing documentary analysis and Caryn and Christopher had the same points on a subject and were in perfect agreement, then one needs to look at a common source. Two very smart people, if they were analysing primary sources should have two different perspectives – potentially broadly in agreement – but with their own perspectives. So it’s clear they’ve used secondary sources – and the secondary source have deliberately obscured the truth.

The other painful part to listen to was ‘the devil you don’t know’. Oh come on! By that logic, on the premise anyone wanting that much power is a devil, people in the aggregate would have seen more of Trump than Clinton and even less of Johnson – so one should vote for Trump. #LogicFail

I would also recommend the Alex Jones show. Before you say ‘conspiracy theorist, conspiracy theorist’ – Clinton, Kaine, and Obama in the last month have mentioned him. (Obama by talking about ‘conspiracy theories like in Texas’ and Clinton and Kaine by name!). Why? Why would people of such power deliberately try to detract from him – because he’s having a devastating affect on them.

I know for Christians our two big hot button issues are abortion and homosexuality and we use these as a litmus test for whom we’ll vote. While these issues are of great importance – they’re used politically to distract us from the atrocities that are being committed in our name. (Honestly what did the Bushes do for abortion? Did they shut down planned parenthood? Did the republican congress de-fund planned parenthood in light of the investigative journalism that revealed they were selling baby parts? As an aside, I believe Jeb was a director of an organization that helped fund planned parenthood!).

May I suggest – if you can – getting guests on that argue why Christians should vote for the Democratic Party or the Republican Party? My suggestion for a Christian Republican is Dinesh De Souza. Political prisoner, movie maker, speech writer, Christian apologist, etc

I think my primary fear with Hillary (aside from knowing she’s going to advance everything ‘progressive’ and ‘liberal’ even more than Obama), is foreign policy. She’s proven to be a warmonger, and this Washington Post article is interesting about how excited the war-elites are getting over the prospect of having someone like her in office.

Despite the massive atrocities the USA has been involved in under Obama, apparently he’s seen as ‘soft’ on this stuff. If he’s soft, then I’m really scared. We’re turning much of the M.E. to rubble to protect ‘US interests’ (i.e.: work for re-builders, oil, the dollar, regime change, taunting Russia, etc.) already. If Hillary is going to green-light even more of that, it’s hard to see how anyone else could be much worse, at this point.